ELI5: The current economy

All over reddit and other places (podcasts I listen to, for example) I see offhand comments about "considering today's economic situation", implying it's bad.

Can someone explain what's the current economic situation in the US and why it's apparently a little rough lately?

I've tried to look around a little. Wikipedia makes it seem pretty positive. Of course there's the financial crisis of 2007-08, but I've heard things so recently that I don't think that's it? Also the article says that things are much better since then.

In my country growth has slowed recently because of lower petrol prices, is that the reason?